Start with the instruction, not the reassurance
Most school tours are designed to make you feel welcome. The question that actually predicts whether your child will learn to read there is much narrower than that.
Every school will tell you they support students with dyslexia. Almost all of them mean it sincerely. What separates them is whether that support is a trained person delivering a structured literacy program on a schedule, or a well intentioned set of accommodations that make school more bearable without teaching anyone to read.
Both matter. Only one of them changes the underlying skill. Treatment options covers that distinction in detail.
Which structured literacy program do you use, who is trained to deliver it, and how many minutes a day would my child receive it. A school with a real program answers all three parts without pausing.
Questions that separate schools
What program do you use, by name?
A strong answer names a specific structured literacy curriculum. A weak answer describes a philosophy, a set of strategies, or a commitment to meeting every child where they are.
Who delivers it, and what is their training?
Ask for credentials by name. CALT, LDT and LDP are verifiable. A teacher who attended a workshop is not the same thing, and a good school will say so plainly.
How often, for how long, and in what group size?
Look for daily or near daily instruction in small groups. Twice a week in a group of eight is a schedule constraint, not a program.
How do you measure progress, and how often?
You want named measures on a stated interval. If the answer is report cards and teacher observation, there is no way to catch a plateau before the year ends.
What happens if my child is not progressing?
The right answer involves reviewing data and changing the approach. More of the same, delivered harder, is the wrong answer.
What do teachers outside the reading block know about dyslexia?
Reading instruction that ends at the classroom door leaves the student decoding a history textbook alone. Ask what training the other teachers have had.
Warning signs
- Nobody can name the reading program, or the name turns out to be the publisher rather than a curriculum.
- Support is described entirely in accommodations: extra time, fewer problems, a quiet room. Useful, but not instruction.
- The plan is to wait and see whether your child catches up.
- The school describes a proprietary method that no one else uses and that is not described in the research literature.
- Colored overlays, tinted lenses, vision therapy or movement based programs are offered as reading interventions.
- You are told your child cannot be dyslexic because they are bright, or because their grades are passing.
Myths and misconceptions covers why the last one keeps happening.
The three settings
Public school
- Free, with legal protections behind the services provided
- Texas districts are required to screen for dyslexia in kindergarten and first grade
- Quality varies significantly by campus and by staffing, not just by district
- Increasingly, districts employ Certified Academic Language Therapists, which is worth asking about by name
- Strongest when you are willing to be an active participant in the process
A school built for dyslexia
- Structured literacy is the core of the school day rather than an add on
- Every teacher is trained, not only the reading specialist
- Tuition based, though aid and scholarships are common
- Often a stage of two to four years rather than a permanent placement
- Strongest when documented intervention elsewhere has stalled
A general independent school
- Small classes and individual attention, which helps but is not intervention
- Support quality ranges from excellent to nonexistent, so verify rather than assume
- Frequently requires outside therapy alongside enrollment
- Admissions may screen out the profile you are seeking help for
- Strongest when reading needs are mild and other fit factors are strong
Private schools for dyslexia covers the second option in depth.
What to do on a visit
- Ask to observe a reading block. Not a general classroom. The actual intervention, in progress.
- Bring the evaluation. Ask what they would do differently on day one for this specific profile.
- Ask to speak with the person who would teach your child. Not only admissions.
- Ask for two parent references whose children have a similar profile, and call them.
- Watch the students. Are they engaged and working, or being managed. That tells you more than any answer you receive.
- Write down the answers. After four tours they blur, and the specifics are what you will need to compare.
Finding a dyslexia school near you covers how to build a shortlist worth touring.
Where this information comes from
This page draws on the organizations below alongside the clinical experience of the therapists who teach at Key School. Where the sources disagree, or where a policy is still changing, we say so in the text instead of picking an answer for you.
- Knowledge and Practice Standards for Teachers of Reading International Dyslexia Association
- The Dyslexia Handbook, on what schools are required to provide Texas Education Agency
- Certification standards for structured literacy teaching Center for Effective Reading Instruction
- Choosing a school, guidance for families Understood.org
